Tag Archives: sonic youth

2011, albums, music, reviews

Album review: Sonic Youth – "SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu"

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I should start this post with a full disclosure: I am just about the biggest fan of Sonic Youth that there can be. This is not to say that I instantly love everything that they do. Even I can admit that NYC Ghosts and Flowers is a god awful album. They have been around long enough that they are allowed to have a few missteps, phases of greatness followed by brief periods of mediocrity. You definitely can’t blame them for it though, they are always willing to try something new and they are always busy creating.

Ever since buying their early DGC releases “Goo” and “Dirty” off of a friend in middle school I have been in love. Soon after my purchase “Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star was released and I was hooked. They have always been able to get away, in my mind anyway, with anything. They are unabashedly experimental with one foot planted firmly in the “rock” world and the other in the world of “serious” contemporary composition. With Sonic Youth though “serious music” isn’t too different from their rock music. They are responsible for successfully merging the two.

Saying that they have “merged the two” is a bit unfair though, to be honest. There really is no such separation, nor should their be. Music is music. Sonic Youth is one of the most prolific acts in existence today. While they are creating music for Matador they are also creating music to be put out on their own, the SYR series, not to mention the myriad side projects, collaborations, and extra-musical activities that each of the members partake. The point is: they are busy. Busy creating.

The numbered SYR releases usually showcase the more experimental side of the band such as “Goodbye 20th Century” that featured works by John Cage, Yoko Ono and Pauline Oliveros among others performed by the band with help from several musician friends. Kim Gordon, DJ Olive and Ikue Mori collaborated on an SYR release with an experimental album of improvisatory compositions as well. This album, the ninth in the SYR series, is no exception to the experimental rule. It is completely instrumental. At times delicate (“Les Agnes Au Piano”), at other slightly more abrasive (“Chez Yves (Alice et Clara)”) but never crossing into very distant territory.

The tracks err on the side of caution in their brevity with few exceptions (notably the 13 minute closing track). Not that as a rule they aren’t able to make longer compositions sound amazingly beautiful, take for example the extended version of The Diamond Sea off of their “Washing Machine” album. That is 20+ minutes of astounding beauty. It seems that with this album they remain focused on one or two clear ideas per track and they know exactly when enough is enough. The brevity of the songs seems to blur the line of what is improvised and what is laid down as a foundation. Sometimes it appears things are hanging on by a thread, only to be pulled back together again. The improvisations have a great deal of substance and direction. All of this is no doubt the result of them playing together for over thirty years.

Sonic Youth - "SYR 9: Simon Werner a Disparu"

To those familiar with Sonic Youths oeuvre the most apt comparison to their earlier work would be found on the soundtrack that they scored to the movie “Made In USA” (apropos of nothing, that soundtrack features my favorite song title ever, “Mackin’ for Doober”) and far from their live improvisations for some Stan Brakhage films that were released as “SYR 6: Koncertas Stan Brakhage Prisiminimui”. That these songs are used as a film soundtrack seems perfectly fitting.

“Escapades” has some really great changes, and generally creates a dark mood. Persistent guitar rhythm doesn’t allow for too much room to move and explore, whereas “Théme de Laetitia” is probably the most spacious song on the album with a buzz that grows to a throbbing hum of guitars. Disjointed echoes emerge from the distance in the left channel while a feedback drone builds in the right among atmospheric cymbal swells. As far as tight vs. loose compositions on the album, where tight would be characterized by little improvisatory noodling and loose being more aleatoric in nature I would place these two tracks at opposite ends of the spectrum. There are tracks such as “Théme de Laetitia” that seem to be concerned more with creating a mood whereas “Escapades” and tracks like it have more of a standard melodic and harmonic nature.

The final track, also the lengthiest cut, “Théme d’ Alice”, has the most clear delineation of the songs structure. The band works so well together throughout the album, but to me it is especially noticeable here. The final 4 minutes is a loosening of that structure, as the song slowly caves in on itself accompanied by a slow fade out.

Through the entire album Steve Shelly’s steady backbeat serves to hold everything together, preventing the work from becoming too much of an all out spacey jam. While the guitars are reaching out into the unknown it is Shelley’s constant that keeps things from going too far. There is a very slight bit of echo on his snare drum. The recording sounds as though it is taking place in a small room, helping to make the album a bit more of the intimate affair. Thurston and Lee’s guitars are pretty sparsely effected with only a touch of delay here and there and light reverb, but nothing that gets in the way of the music and mic’d pretty close; their sound is pushed up front.

It’s not surprising that it is Sonic Youth that finally creates an album that goes its own path, and does so exceptionally well. There is no “wall of sound” production”, no super crazy amounts of reverb on everything, drenching the music beyond the point of recognition. Not that being trendy is high on their agenda. Sonic Youth have been the vanguard of new popular music for a long time now. They have always been the leader and never the follower.

When I was an undergraduate music composition major my professor used to tell the class repeatedly that composition was merely “edited improv”, and I read in an interview once a long time ago where Thurston Moore said that improv was simply “instant composition”. I suppose these things go hand in hand. Sonic Youth does “instant composition” perfectly. It is improvisation with purpose and shape, forethought and direction, all of this that my composition professor referred to as “causality”. This is exactly what is created with this album.

Listening to SYR releases is like getting a peek into Sonic Youth’s notebooks and it is always interesting to hear what they are working on.

[audio:http://quartertonality.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/05.-Jean-Baptiste-+á-la-fen+¬tre.mp3|titles=Jean-Baptiste à la fenêtre]
2010, miscellaneous, music, songs, thoughts, writing

Sonic Youth Exegesis 1: "Hey Joni"

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I started doing this on twitter where periodically I would take a line from a Sonic Youth tune and expound upon it. The idea just came out of me being goofy and bored while listening to Daydream Nation one night. I just wanted to make the lyrics sound conversational, but in a really erudite and literate way, as if someone that was very proper, or perhaps went to a finishing school, would say them. I called these tweets by The Proper Sonic Youths. Some people started to enjoy it and I decided last night that I was going to extrapolate this idea on my blog by “translating” entire songs in this manner.

Specifically what I try to do when coming up with these is to follow the lyrics, line by line, using as many different words for the specifics in each line, but still holding the same meaning. Basically I’m taking the poetry and flow out of it and making it as dry as possible, like Thurston, Lee and Kim have been rendered hypnotized by a thesaurus. You’ll get it, just follow along if you know the song, which I have posted at the bottom.

exegesis | eksi jesis|
noun ( pl. -ses |-sez|)
critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture

Today’s exegesis comes from “Daydream Nation”. I pictured the lyrics of this track as if Lee were writing a letter to Joni (which is Joni Mitchell, if you didn’t know already). So I actually wrote down his letter. In case you can’t read my ( I mean….Lee’s…) handwriting, the text is copied below.

Dear Joni,

I would like to encourage you to place everything that has happened into the past. If you would do me this kindness I will offer to do the same. What is going on in your life right now is really quite confusing for you, I’m sure. Again, I would encourage you to just forget about all of those things that happened and just try to stay positive.

Be honest with me, Joni. I mean, we are in this together if you want me to help you out then I will. Perhaps it’s a result of living in this town, a change of location might help to guide your life in the proper direction. I’m remembering when we were younger, with our lofty ambitions, but you were unwilling to break the mold, until the one day we sat talking in the forest and I think that is where you finally had a breakthrough. We really bonded then, and I don’t think there’s any going back after what we said to each other.

Don’t you think I’m trustworthy anymore? Am I not a good person? How do you plan on turning your life around without me? When are you going to make good on all the promises that you’ve made to yourself?…Just assure me you won’t do anything you or I will later regret.

I dreamt the other night that you were standing in the middle of a large field, tall grass all around you, with gunfire in the distance. You were the most beautiful sight I’ve ever seen, lighting up the sky in your brilliance. You weren’t concerned with anything but the precise moment you were in, right then and there. You were hoping to hold on to that moment forever.

Please, just put it all in the past. I’m serious about this and it’s all I can think about and you know I’m right! Just forget it, and I’ll forget it. Forget what “could” happen, everything is just a disaster right now. Don’t think about what did happen, and move forward with a positive attitude.

The years fly by, just place them behind you. Live in the present from now on.

Sincerely,

Lee – of The Proper Sonic Youths

[audio:http://quartertonality.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/07-Hey-Joni.mp3|titles=Hey Joni]

2009, live, music, personal

Coming up this weekend….

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It is that time of year again!

Time to bake in the Chicago sun for the annual Pitchfork Music Festival! I have been attending the festival since 2006. During that time I have seen several amazing bands, met many people and always had a great time. It was during this festival in 2006 that I realized that seeing live music was very important to me and it is a great experience to discover new music in a live setting. When I first went to the festival it was a scant 2 days long, now it has expanded with the help of All Tomorrow’s Parties to 3 days (though the first day is about a quarter as long as the other 2).

It was during this festival in the past few years that I came to love the music of The Futureheads, Spoon, Liars, Yo La Tengo, Dirty Projectors, and of Montreal. I also will never forget amazing performances by Girl Talk, Spiritualized, Sonic Youth, Os Mutantes, Silver Jews, Caribou, Dan Deacon, Stephen Malkmus and countless others.

It is so much more than just a music festival too. There is the flatstock poster convention too, which features gig posters by many different artists that are there to talk to and purchase posters from. I make it a habit of getting Jay Ryan’s Pitchfork poster every year. I really love his work. It is highly recognizable and he is also based out of Chicago, so he is more or less a hometown hero as well. I’m still upset that I didn’t begin this tradition until 2007, and I can’t find a 2006 poster anywhere, but such is life. Perhaps someday it will show up on ebay.

I will be twittering (www.twitter.com/quartertonality) throughout the weekend, that is certain. In addition to this I will be trying to see as many bands as humanly possible. I would estimate that I will catch somewhere between 20 to 25 sets over the weekend.  My only hope is that the weather is great. Rain would really put a serious damper on the fun. Other things I’m looking forward to:

-after-shows at Schubas or the Empty Bottle or something (I was actually so tired last year, or was it the year before?, that I fell asleep at a Twilight Sad concert at Schubas)

-record shopping at permanent records, which is located conveniently around the corner from my brother’s place, where I am staying

-meeting my brother’s new cat Dr. Pirate.

-vinyl shopping at the festival (all the labels have booths set up and it was a completely random purchase at the Sub-Pop booth in 2006 that introduced me to the awesomeness that is the Constantines….I really need to buy more of their stuff come to think of it)

So much more. I will be posting pictures and videos here as well as to my youtube and flickr pages. If I have time and am not too exhausted I will post them immediately, but I may wait until the weekend is over. Sorry, I am not a slave to the immediacy of the internet. Please stay tuned.

2009, albums, music, news, reviews

Sonic Youth – The Eternal

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Sonic Youth has been my favorite band since I first heard Dirty in the summer of 1993. I was immediately attracted to what I thought was a very much “anything goes” mentality. The music was (and remains, to a certain extent) brash, noisy, and full of surprises. From one release to the next they may completely change their sound or they may remain writing in the same manner for several albums in a row.

For several years, after “Experimental, Jet Set, Trash and No Star” and “Washing Machine” I lost track of my beloved Sonic Youth. I had purchased “A Thousand Leaves” and never really connected with it. They went on to release “New York City Ghosts and Flowers” and I felt further separated from my beloved Sonic Youth. Thankfully for my birthday one year my brother bought me a copy of “Murray Street” and I got my band back again. Gone were the ultra-hip completely high-brow concepts that I could not grasp at all, and Sonic Youth was back to doing what they do best.

“Murray Street”, “Sonic Nurse” and “Rather Ripped” were truly a return to form. But this was a leaner Sonic Youth. They were stripped down somewhat of some of the long form experiments. It became clear that Thurston, Lee, Kim and Steve wanted to get back to writing quick, punk influenced jams that were still rich in catchy melodies but still contained a balance with noisy, improvisational stretches that many of their early releases were full of. Sonic Youth has reached a balance. After well over a dozen releases they were still evolving and developing into a band that is quite capable of rocking while still holding fast to their core Downtown New York City experimental values.

“The Eternal”, which will be released officially on June 9, is quite a diverse offering. Twelve tracks, across 2 albums (Sonic Youth should always be listened to on vinyl, in my humble opinion. As much as possible anyway). The hooks are a little more jagged here than they were on their last release “Rather Ripped”. The melodies are a little less pretty, but the songs are a bit more straightforward, and edgy. They sound younger on this album, more revolutionary, more punk than arty. There are still a couple of songs on this album that stretch beyond the 6 minute mark (3 to be exact, one of which is over 9 minutes).

They don’t tend towards noise as much as they would on “Evol” or “Sister” (or even parts of “Daydream Nation” like the song “Eric’s Trip”). Instead the longer songs have large sections that are loud, and noisy, but not so much in the realm of getting lost in distortion as they are contemplating sounds through repetition or focusing on a repeated gesture. Dare I say that elements of shoegaze are present at this stage in the game. Songs like “Anti-Orgasm” feature a duet of Thurston and Kim, with a super angry palm-muted crunch. The song then spins out of control into an extended quiet jam that is, like I mentioned before, more contemplative than just noise for the sake of noise. Though, there is never anything wrong with noise for the sake of noise.The Thurston/Kim collaboration continues on tracks “Leaky Lifeboat (for Gregory Corso)”.

Sonic Youths The Eternal will be released on Matador Records on June 9
Sonic Youth's "The Eternal" will be released on Matador Records on June 9

“Antenna” begins with a very straight ahead verse but builds up to a very ethereal, and damn catch chorus. Well, it is not so much a chorus as it is just a hook with Thurston singing “Far away” in his falsetto with an echoed guitar doubling him while the rest of the band seems to disappear into the background. It’s one of those magical moments that can only they seem to be able to achieve. Maybe it is because there is only one chord that is hammered on for about a minute before anything else in the song changes, and when that change finally comes it feels like you are being simultaneously lifted off of the ground while a 10 ton weight is being lifted from your shoulders.

Throughout the album there is a higher degree of continuity between songs. The style of each of the 3 songwriters (Lee, Kim and Thurston) seem to have congealed significantly more over the past few years than on previous releases. All around this is a solid effort, and it continues along in the way the band conducts their business as producing “poppy-er” albums (as much as Sonic Youth can produce anything even remotely “poppy”) for the label they work for (currently Matador, formerly DGC) and leaving their most experimental indulgences for release on their own SYR label. I think that they have managed to find an outlet for all of the things that they want to say, do and explore through each of these avenues. This, of course, does not even mention all of the collaborations they each go off and do, as well as other art that they each produce, Kim as a clothing designer, Thurston has written books, and worked with several other artists around the world including Merzbow, Wolf Eyes and Yoko Ono.

I truly hope that Sonic Youth continues to create well into the next 10 or 20 years. They have already influenced countless others, and are one of the only bands that I can think of that actually have something intelligent and different to say. There is no other group quite like Sonic Youth. This album is another one for the collection. Reviewing Sonic Youth albums just seems like an exercise in futility. There are pretty much just maniacal fans, like me, that are going to buy the album anyway and love it. Perhaps we will love it more than another of their albums, perhaps less, but we are still going to buy it. I don’t think that Sonic Youth is going to get a rush of new fans running out to get this album, but maybe I will be proven wrong. They already have at least one legendary album to their credit, and although I don’t think this will be another one of them, if they keep up with this trajectory, another one is not far off.

2008, music, personal, reviews, thoughts

Monthly Muxtape Madness Vol. 1

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So I decided that I am going to lend my time to yet another page on teh interwebs. Muxtape.com allows users to create a mix tape of up to 12 songs. Who doesn’t remember creating mixes for your friends and family to listen to? I definitely created tons when I was a kid.

Now it is popular with the hipster set as not only a form of nostalgia (hipsters love nostalgia, seeing as how they never want to grow up) but as a way to show everyone how eclectic, strange and indie their taste in music is. That being said, I’m going to start making my own mix and update it, change the tracks periodically (hopefully monthly or so). I’ll blog up little descriptions of each track here and give you a link to the tape. Big surprise, it is http://quartertonality.muxtape.com. Just click on the track you want to start with (

Here is Volume 1:

“Wake Me When It’s Over” is off of Longwave’s 2nd full length album and is quite a change from their first, though it definitely extrapolates off of the influences that they clearly feel strongly about (Television, U2, Radiohead, The Strokes etc…) This is the opening track off of that album and I thought it would make a good opening track here. This song kind of feels like a sunrise anyway, with orange light bouncing off of dust as it flies through the air. Lots of delayed effect on the guitars and atmospherics. Great song

“Get a Shot of the Refrigerator” is typical Stereolab. Sometimes instrumental, sometimes not. Sometimes the lyrics are in French, sometimes English, sometimes both. This is a truly unique band with a very devoted, indie “insider” following. Somewhere between rock and dance music lies Stereolab with their groovy jams and tight ensemble work. “The groop”, as their fans call them are unlike anything you have heard before.

“Love and Death” is off of The Stills’ first album. This Canadian band made quite a splash with their first album, only to completely lose me with their second. This album feels nostalgic to me for some reason. It is great in all the right spots. This song has not only a great chorus but a great verse as well. The whole thing fits together very well. I like the interplay and counterpoint between both of the guitars and the way the verses really work towards the choruses to create a seamless texture, similar to the Longwave but a little more overproduced.

“Range Life” is off of the now defunct California outfit Pavement’s absolutely amazing album entitled “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain” and features a very loose ensemble with barely tuned guitars creating a song that feels like it is in slow motion. Lead singer Stephen Malkmus’s voice is shaky and somewhere between falsetto and full voiced belting, but it seems like he is trying to keep it quiet. Sarcastic lyrics with a lazy delivery and all genius.

“First Day” is off of Sunderland England’s own The Futureheads first blistering album full of jangly, angular punk songs. The guitars are all over the place in this one darting in and out of the way of each other with the entire gang joining in to sing the chorus. The band builds up faster and faster until it seems like they are going to completely fall apart, the trick is that is when they are at their best, right before everything falls apart.

“My Mathematical Mind” is from Austin, Texas’ own Spoon’s album “Gimme Fiction”. Though that album did not quite do it for me as much as their most recent effort (“Ga ga ga ga ga” from 2007) it still has a few decent tracks on it. This is one of them. The lyrics are almost too brainy and self-absorbed, but they never quite cross the line. The bouncy, hemiola inflected piano line helps give the opening a good swing and the throbbing, present bass propels the song forward while the guitar struggles for air just below Britt Daniel’s soaring vocal.

“Stereo Sanctity” is from Sonic Youth’s album Sister. The group experiments with altered tunings, noise and chaos as part of its aesthetic flawlessly combining the ideals of the post-punk crowd and the downtown music composition scene of Eliot Sharp, Glen Branca and free jazzers like Sun Ra. This song has always been one of my favorites of theirs, very energetic, very noisy. Just plain great.

“Freak Out” by Liars, originally from Australia, then moved to NYC and now based out of Berlin Liars have experimented with each of their albums. This is off of their most recent offering simply called “Liars” which features a whole series of really tight rock songs that are similar in vane to early Sonic Youth, but a little more percussion driven. This album combines elements of all their past efforts and shows them finally focusing in and going out on one clear path. This song brings forward the jangle of a reverb soaked, out of tune guitar and the chant-like approach to singing.

“Your Hand in Mine” by Explosions in the Sky is one of the only examples of music in a rock band format that is truly orchestral in scope. This band, again from Texas, creates grand sonic soundscapes on each of their albums that are usually full of lengthy, developmental structures. This song is one of the most beautiful rock songs I have ever heard. Simple, in E major, utilizing the open strings on the guitar to create a truly moving sound. You can tell that each line was painstakingly put together. The structure of this song is almost mathematical and it is even divided into sections, but they work so well together it is scary.

“Goodbye Ukulele” by Peterborough, Ontario’s The Burning Hell is depressing, yes. It is also a great way to close an album. Singer Matthias Kom bids adieu to each of the instruments in the band one by one and they disappear until he is completely alone with his ukulele. This is one of the only really slow songs that I have ever really liked this much.

I hope I haven’t rambled on too long. I hope you enjoy this mix.